Starship launch count key to Moon landing
A new estimate shows how many Starship launches are needed for a Moon landing.
By Elijah Fitzgerald ·
NASA’s Artemis Program faces a significant challenge in determining how many Starship launches are needed to fuel a lunar lander for a Moon landing. This number has been a moving target over the years, with NASA typically reluctant to give an exact figure. In 2023, Lisa Watson-Morgan, then-director of NASA’s Human Landing System, said the number was in the ‘high single digits to the low double digits,’ suggesting about a dozen launches. SpaceX would need to launch a ‘depot’ Starship, and then 11 ‘tanker’ Starships to fully load it with liquid oxygen and methane propellant for a lunar voyage. Other officials have said ‘high teens.’ The hope has always been that SpaceX would dramatically improve the lift capacity of Starship to bring down the number of tanker flights.
A new estimate emerges from the NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel’s quarterly meeting. Panel member Charlie Precourt, a former NASA astronaut, spoke about risks associated with the Artemis Program and landing humans on the Moon.
There are concerns among some NASA officials that this might not be happening, or at least not happening soon enough to allow SpaceX’s Starship rocket to play a meaningful role in returning humans to the Moon for NASA as part of Artemis this decade.
The number of Starship launches required to fuel a Starship-based lunar lander in low-Earth orbit such that it can fly out to the Moon, land there, and return to lunar orbit is a key metric in the Artemis Program.
The hope is that SpaceX will improve the lift capacity of Starship to reduce the number of tanker flights needed for a Moon landing.
NASA guards this particular number like it is trying to prevent outsiders from cracking nuclear codes.
The number of Starship launches required to fuel a lunar lander is a key metric in the Artemis Program.
The hope is that SpaceX will improve the lift capacity of Starship to reduce the number of tanker flights needed for a Moon landing.
There are concerns among some NASA officials that this might not be happening, or at least not happening soon enough to allow SpaceX’s Starship rocket to play a meaningful role in returning humans to the Moon for NASA as part of Artemis this decade.
